ANALYSIS: A legal challenge for celebrity PROs - As the relationship between the media and publicity-hungry celebrities reaches a new low, Claire Murphy asks if celebrity PROs should consider closer links with the legal world

April 05, 2002

Naomi Campbell wasn't the only one happy to have won her privacy
case against The Mirror last week. Thanks to the supermodel's legal
team, newspaper editors are going to have to think more carefully about
running their snatched photos of celebrities, and kiss-and-tell
tales.

Despite ruling that The Mirror was within its rights publishing details
of Campbell's drug addiction, Mr Justice Morland ruled celebrities were
entitled to 'some space of privacy, even if they shamelessly courted
media attention'. Music to celebrity PROs' ears.

The PR ramifications of this court case come as the legal and PR
professions are working closer than ever. With the rise of group
litigation lawsuits on this side of the Atlantic (the equivalent of the
US class action), PR is being harnessed to attract more plaintiffs, and
breed public sympathy for personal injury claims. Plaintiffs' legal
teams will even seek publicity for their case to encourage a corporate
defendant to settle at a higher price rather than risk their
reputation.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Campbell case is the
increasingly cosy relationship between celebrity PR agencies and
lawyers. What better way to raise the effectiveness of your call to an
editor before publication than to be able to say 'my legal partner has
already drafted the writ'?

It was alleged in court by The Mirror that Freud Communications, which
shares many celebrity clients with Campbell's lawyers, Schilling & Lom
and Partners, actively encouraged Campbell to sue in an attempt to
advance the law on privacy.

Freuds director Oliver Wheeler denies this, but there is no doubt that
the agency has benefited from its relationship with the celebrated libel
lawyers, and that for many Freuds clients - including DJ Sara Cox, who
is suing the Sunday People - invoking libel law is the ultimate course
of action.

'Libel and privacy litigation is the sharp end of public relations,'
says Schilling & Lom and Partners senior partner Keith Schilling. 'We
come in when the PR gets out of control.'

Schilling was the first lawyer to extract a front-page apology for a
client (from the Daily Mail, for a story on Freuds client Brooke
Shields).

The value to a celebrity of having representatives who can use official
and unofficial channels to protect their reputation is immense.

Wheeler admits that use of the law firm's services in trying to prevent
a story being published can be crucial, although he denies that this
amounts to swapping the traditional process of PR for legal
manoeuvres.

'We deal in protecting people's reputation and at any time there is
always one issue that looks like it won't be resolved via the usual
channels,' he says. Wheeler estimates that the agency needs legal help
from Schilling about twice a month, although he emphasises that it is
always the last resort.

Often, he adds, he calls a newspaper's lawyer directly, after being
phoned by a reporter about a story: 'The papers have strengthened their
legal teams and it's often easier to speak straight to someone who knows
what they can and can't get away with. I don't even have to bother the
editor.'

There are dangers inherent in going down the legal route, most obviously
to a PR person's relationship with the media. If Matthew Freud is keen
not to be seen to represent Naomi Campbell, preserving his relationship
with Mirror editor Piers Morgan must be a consideration.

'A good PR person really should be able to defuse a situation to keep a
bad story out of the papers if they have a strong enough relationship
with the editor,' says Neil Reading, joint chairman of celebrity PR firm
Reading Luchford GBH. 'Legal threats set an antagonistic tone to that
relationship, and hell hath no fury like a tabloid editor scorned.'

As Reading points out, there is also a third option - an appeal to the
Press Complaints Commission. But the PCC is often only able to order an
apology - something that Freuds had already managed to get the Sunday
People to print after pictures of Cox and her husband on honeymoon were
published. By then the reputational damage is often done.

The legal route is often tried pre-publication, where a client, with
their PRO and legal team, attempts to pre-empt damage to their
reputation.

Jamie Theakston attempted to get an injunction to prevent the Sunday
People printing details of his night at a brothel. His PRO, Julian
Henry, managing director of Henry's House, became involved once the
injunction failed and lined up a story, from Theakston's point of view,
in the News of the World.

Theakston's lawyer, by coincidence, was also Schilling. But Henry's
usual relationship is with Harbottle & Lewis, which he used for The
Spice Girls, Pop Idol and stories about Will Young.

Most PR agencies have not gone down the route of forging an exclusive
relationship with a law firm yet. Reading works with Schilling and Henry
Bradman, for example, while Alan Edwards, The Outside Organisation CEO,
prefers to work with a range of law firms.

However, the benefits of a close working relationship with a specialist
law firm are evident. Despite the reticence of many in the PR industry
to discuss how closely they work with lawyers, the value to a client
under threat of exposure of having a complete reputation protection
service on hand cannot be underestimated.